Tolkien find finally published

A US academic who discovered a J.R.R. Tolkien manuscript in Oxford University's Bodleian Library had an epic adventure publishing it.

Michael Drout, who stumbled on Tolkien's translation of the classic Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf six years ago, said it was clearly his inspiration for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Professor Drout, 34, who lectures in English in Massachusetts, eventually won permission from the Tolkien estate to publish the 2000- page translation and appraisal, written for a British Academy lecture - Beowulf, the Monsters and the Critics - in 1936.

He said the Tolkien estate had had requests for everything from Tolkien coffins to Hobbit foot-slippers.

"The sheer number of people who were trying to profit from Tolkien's work was astonishing, and the problems with copyright violation and theft were like nothing I had ever encountered in medieval studies."

Herald feature: Lord of the Rings